Part of our on-going series, Notebook Soundtrack Mixes.
This kaleidoscopic compilation of soundtracks by Bernard Herrmann scored for film, television and radio presents a feature-length overview of this incredibly unique composer's wide-ranging and distinctive style. Working with directors such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, during a career that spanned over forty years, Herrmann created scores of such innovative and emotional magnitude that notions of sound and music in cinema have never been the same. The breadth and scope of Herrmann's ingenious composing, arranging and orchestrating talent is on full display here, from the use of the theremin in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), to the all-string "black & white" sound for Psycho (1960), and the whistled main title of The Twisted Nerve (1968). Despite a well-charted, stormy history of personal and professional battles, Herrmann could work effortlessly in many musical idioms, seemingly without pause, whether it be within the Romanticism of Jane Eyre (1943) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1946) (his own favorite of his film scores), or in an austere, serialist format for the chilling radio drama, The Moat Farm Murders (1944). Herrmann's music can at times be confused with sound effects, for instance with the crashing timpani during the erupting volcano climax of Mysterious Island (1961). In fact, he sought to fuse all of the sonorous elements of the soundtrack—voice, sound effects and music—into "…something that comes out of the screen and engulfs the whole audience…. The screen itself dictates musical forms."1 I've loosely arranged this 80 minute mix into four sections that showcase a few, but hardly all, of the facets of this composer's visionary music.
1. Herrmann quoted in E. W. Cameron's Sound and the Cinema: The Coming of Sound to American Film.
PART ONE: THE DIFFICULTY OF BEING
1. North By Northwest (1959), "Overture" (0:00)
2. Taxi Driver (1975), "Thank God For the Rain" (2:15)
3. Taxi Driver(1975) "Assassination Attempt" (edit) (3:51)
4. The ThreeWorlds Of Gulliver (1960) "The Tightrope" (edit) (4:19)
5. The Night Digger (1971) "Scene Seven" (edit) (4:39)
6. Vertigo (1958) "Scotty Tails Madeline #2" (edit) (5:36)
7. Marnie(1964) "Obsessions: (edit) (6:11)
8. Cape Fear (1962) "After The Dream" (edit) (7:22)
9. Vertigo (1958) "The Letter" (edit) (8:21)
10. Psycho(1960) "Marion and Sam" (edit) (9:50)
11. 5 Fingers(1952) "Departure 1" (edit) (11:29)
12. The Wrong Man (1956) "Stork Club" (13:19)
13. North By Northwest (1959) "The Airport" (13:46)
14. Sisters (1972) "Clean-up, The Search" (edit) (14:43)
15. The Night Digger (1971) "Scene Three" (edit) (15:42)
16. Marnie(1965) "Morning After" (edit) (16:19)
17. The Twilight Zone (1960) "The Lonely" (edit) (17:28)
18. The Wrong Man (1957) "Police Van" (18:16)
19. On Dangerous Ground (1951) "Snowstorm" (edit) (18:48)
20. The Kentuckian (1955) "Night Sounds" (edit) (20:14)
21. The Night Digger(1971) "Scene One" (edit) (21:10)
22. Fahrenheit 451(1966) "Freedom" (edit) (21:38)
23. Fahrenheit 451 (1966) "The Vase" (edit( (22:09)
24. The Battle of Neretva(1970) "Retreat" (edit) (22:25)
25. The Snows of Kilimanjaro(1952) The Hyena" (edit) (22:50)
26. Marnie (1964) "A New Job" (edit) (24:13)
27. Marnie (1964) "The Return" (edit) (24:26)
28. Marnie(1964) "The Color Red" (edit) (25:03)
29. Marnie (1964) "The Despair" (edit) (25:32)
30. Twisted Nerve (1968) "Main Title" (edit) (25:47)
31. Twisted Nerve (1968) "Jazz" (edit) (26:22)
32. Taxi Driver(1976) "End Credits" (edit) (27:15)
PART TWO: DESCRIPTION OF A STRUGGLE
33. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) "The Roc" (edit) (28:10)
34. The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960) "Pursued by Giants" (edit) (30:00)
35. Mysterious Island (1961) "Escape To The Clouds" (edit) (30:46)
36. Collector's Item(1950's) "Suite" (edit) (32:04) unsold pilot for television
37. Torn Curtain (1966) "The Corridor" (edit) (33:11) unused score
38. Beneath The Twelve-Mile Reef (1953) "The Marker" (edit) (34:21)
39. The Day The Earth Stood Still(1951) "The Visor And The Ray" (edit) (35:56)
40. North By Northwest (1959) "On The Rocks" (edit) (37:36)
41. Collector's Item (1950's) "Suite" (edit) (38:15) unsold pilot for television
42.Garden of Evil(1954) "The Chasm" (edit) (38:48)
43. The Kentuckian (1955) "The Rope" (edit) (39:09)
44. Mysterious Island(1961) "Escape From The Island" (edit) (39:48)
PART THREE: FEAR EATS THE SOUL
45. The Day The Earth Stood Still(1951) "The Robot" (edit) (40:47)
46. The Moat Farm Murders (1944) "Suite" (edit 1) (41:42) for radio
47. The Moat Farm Murders (1944) "Suite" (edit 2) (42:17) for radio
48. The Moat Farm Murders (1944) "Suite" (edit 3) (43:04) for radio
49. The Twilight Zone (1959) "Where Is Everybody?" (edit) (44:16) television episode
50. Sisters (1972) "Phillip's Murder" (edit) (45:06)
51. Taxi Driver(1976) "Sport and Iris" (edit) (47:08)
52. A Hatful of Rain(1957) "The Sidewalk" (edit) (48:00)
53. Cape Fear (1962) "The Girl Is Found" (edit) (48:40)
54. Cape Fear (1962/1991) "Rape and Hospital" (edit) (48:53)
55. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) "The Return" (edit) (49:55)
56. Garden of Evil (1954) "The Quarrel" (edit) (50:22)
57. Obsession (1976) "The Ferry" (50:46)
58. Fahrenheit 451 (1966) "Fire Station" (edit) (53:25)
59. The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960) "The Crocodile" (edit) (54:18)
60. The Wrong Man (1956) "The Cell ll" (edit) (54:56)
61. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) "Thee Apparition" (edit) (56:15)
62. Vertigo (1958) "The Forest" (edit) (57:08)
63. Psycho (1960) "The Murder" (edit) (57:39)
PART FOUR: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
64. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad(1958) "The Princess" (edit) (58:35)
65. North By Northwest(1959) "Interlude" (edit) (59:41)
66. The Battle of Neretva (1971) "Pastorale" (1:00:54)
67. Taxi Driver (1976) "I Still Can't Sleep" (edit) (1:02:52)
68. Hangover Square (1945) "Concerto Macabre for Piano and Orchestra" (edit) (1:03:44)
69. The Egyptian (1954) "Prelude/The Red Sea" (edit) (1:05:46)
70. Jane Eyre (1943) "Selections from the film" (edit) (1:07:45)
71. Obsession (1976) "Memorial Park" (edit) (1:08:38)
72. Citizen Kane(1941) "Snow Picture" (edit) (1:09:56)
73. The Kentuckian (1955) "Suite" (edit) (1:10:30)
74. Fahrenheit 451(1966) "The Novel/David Copperfield" (edit) (1:11:33)
75. The Night Digger (1971) "Scene Seven" (edit) (1:12:48)
76. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) "Ostinato" (edit) (1:13:25)
77. Garden of Evil (1954) "Night Scene" (edit) (1:14:54)
78. The Trouble with Harry (1955) "Tea Time" (edit) (1:15:59)
79. Walking Distance- episode from The Twilight Zone (1959) "Elegy" (edit) (1:17:36)
80. Citizen Kane (1941) "Rosebud/Final" (edit) (1:18:03)
81. Vertigo(1958) "Beauty Parlor" (1:20:40)